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DUNEDIN, FLA.—The Blue Jays’ starting rotation, as currently constructed, would be the first in baseball history without a pitcher between the ages of 25 and 35. Mark Buehrle, ever the plain-spoken veteran, is predictably unimpressed by this bit of trivia.

“I think you guys are looking into it too much, if you ask me,” he says flatly. “I guess it’s a little weird you’ve got two guys 36 and 40 and a bunch of young guys. They’re just fading us old guys out and bringing the young guys in.”

They are all big pieces of the Jays’ future and they will be front and centre this year. But you can’t take the plough horses for granted just because you’ve got a few colts running around. The only way this dichotomous rotation will be successful is if the old hands, Buehrle and R.A. Dickey, continue to take the ball every fifth day and eat up innings.

The two fastest-working pitchers in the game are also among the most reliable. Buehrle is the pinnacle of consistency, having racked up 14 consecutive seasons of 200 innings without spending a day on the disabled list. Meanwhile, only James Shields, now with the Padres, has thrown more innings than Dickey since 2012. They both field their positions well and control the running game.

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“We’ll go deep in the game, give the bullpen a break,” Buehrle says, describing how he views his role. “It’s my job to go as deep as I can and give us a chance to win. If I give up seven runs in the first inning I gotta go out and throw up some zeros to try to hold us in the game as long as I can.”

Beyond that reliability, this season carries extra weight for the veterans. Buehrle, baseball’s active leader in innings pitched, is in the final year of the four-year contract he signed with the Miami Marlins before he was traded to Toronto in the fall of 2012. He has mused openly about retirement. Dickey, meanwhile, is in the final guaranteed year of the three-year extension he signed as part of his trade from the New York Mets, signed in the hopes of joining a playoff contender. If the Jays are out of the race by the July 31 trade deadline, both pitchers are likely to be moved. So they are as invested in their teammates’ success as their own.

Dickey, who lived in the spotlight during his 2012 Cy Young season — a year in which he also published a bestselling biography — says he doesn’t mind if he’s overshadowed by the young guns. “The less attention on me the better,” he says, laughing. “I’ve done that. I’m happy to be under the radar for the whole rest of my career. The younger guys deserve a lot of the attention that they’re getting.”

The 40-year-old knuckleballer said these days he’s more interested in doing his job than earning accolades. “I think you get to a point in your career when you’re kind of over all that. Early on in your career you think that, ‘Oh man, it’d be nice to be celebrated and get attention.’ As you get older it lacks a lot of the importance that it might have once had for you. You just want to be trustworthy and do your job and be part of a machine that does something special.”

Ask any scout and they will tell you the Jays’ young starters will turn heads this year. But chances are they will also stumble at times and will need to be rescued by long relief. Buehrle and Dickey, while often unspectacular, will be counted upon to give the bullpen much-needed days off.

Like Buehrle, Dickey said the unique age gap on the pitching staff is irrelevant. “The dynamic of how the rotation is configured makes no difference to me as long as the wins and innings pitched come out where they need to.”

Norris, who has befriended Dickey and improved his pickoff move under Buehrle’s tutelage, agrees. “It doesn’t feel like there’s that big of an age difference,” he said. “I feel like we relate really well.”

Regardless of age, Dickey says the starting staff’s goal should be to pitch 1,000 innings as a unit. “Of course you give yourself some grace because that’s so hard to do. But you want to be close to that. You want to be in the 850 to 900 range for sure. If you can do that it means you’ve been able to take the ball every fifth day, you’ve stayed healthy and more than likely you’ve given your team a chance to win most ball games.”

Both Buehrle and Dickey say they prize being trusted by their teammates. “I want my teammates to know every fifth day I’m going to be running out there and we’re going to have a really good chance to win the ball game,” Dickey said. “That’s it.”

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